TERRIFIC THAILAND

We've been blown away by the beauty of Bangkok and the Thai people.  We've met with three wonderful groups who look like potentially great partners for wheelchairs.  Elder Leon and Sister Katherine Noorda from Las Vegas are the hard working Humanitarian Couple here and arrived last fall just after the terrible flooding occurred here and have spent much of their time in flood relief work.

Loving Life in Cambodia

People often ask us "what is your favorite country you've worked in on your mission?"  I always think of my mom's mantra of the words to an old song "if I'm not with the ones I love....I LOVE THE ONES I'M WITH!"  This is our second time working in Cambodia and this time we have been working with a wonderful couple from St. George, Utah,  Elder Robbin and Sister Nancy Henderson.  We were priviliged to meet with them in St. George last summer before they started their mission and get them updated on what had happened in Cambodia with wheelchairs, so it was like "coming home" to meet them here in Cambodia and be able to work with them these past few days. 
LDSC will go forward with two small projects with two local wheelchair manufacturers, AARWCD and VIC.  We also met with another larger organization that we hope can do wheelchairs on a larger scale in the future.  This is such interesting and rewarding work for us.  We feel like we've made so many new friends all over Asia.  We're fascinated by the variety of culture and people in each country and never tire of pondering on the vast scope of humanity all created by the same loving, caring God whom we serve.

Ho Chi Minh City Highlights

We feel extremely honored to have met the Nguyen family who owns and runs the Kien Tuong Wheelchair factory here in HCMC.  We had a lovely meeting with them including a tour of the factory and a fantastic lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen and two of their adult children.  Mr. Nguyen is a veteran, an inventor, a poet and author and in our mind....a hero who has done so much to benefit the disabled of Vietnam and many other countries who have received his incredible wheelchairs and trikes.

Elder Felix and Sister Jan Blinn from Maine are the hardworking Humanitarian couple here and have made some connections with 3 groups who will potentially be able to attend our wheelchair training sessions in a couple of months to learn how to assess and fit wheelchair users to the appropriate wheelchair.



Exploring new possibilities in Vietnam

We are privileged to work with great couples like Elder and Sister Michel from Sandy, Utah who are working hard in Hanoi to bring the Church "out of obscurity" through their great Humanitarian work and dedicated service to the pioneering members of the church here in Vietnam. 

December in Nepal

We traveled to Nepal after Thanksgiving to work again with Rakesh Hamal, the Deppong's and the Esplin's to do two trainings, one in Kathmandu and the second in Chitwan to the southwest.

A Class Participant named Kalpana

Gene and Pauline Esplin     Debbie and Ollie Deppong

Tyler Huish was the other Trainer.

I'm Delinquent in Keeping up my Blog Reports!

We did a second training with the Larson's down south in Kuching.

Alan Nybo was the other PT that joined us for these two trainings.  Unfortunately for Kim, he got Malaria in Malaysia and had a rough last week of our training and felt pretty rocky on our trip home to Utah where we only had 8 days to spend over Thanksgiving to be with our family and help his recuperate before our trip to Nepal!

Wheelchair Training session In Kota Kinabalu

Memorable Malaysia

We have just finished our first training seminar in West Malaysia and have come to love and appreciate the beautiful people of Malaysia. Our partners are Cheshire Homes and the Malaysia Council of Rehabilitation and we had 20 participants in our first course of training. We are learning so much from these people and trying to understand their culture and religion. Elder Barry and Sister Linda Johnson are the Humanitarian couple here and have been so great to work with us and help to plan for this training.

Next week we'll train in East Malaysia with Elder and Sister Larson for a seminar in Kota Kinabalu and then one in Kuching.

These are the famous twin towers in Kuala Lumpur city center.

Matt Beddes, a P. T. from Farmington, has been the other Trainer with Kim and he has been SUPER during this training. The people have loved his teaching style and his warm, friendly, funny personality.

Mongolia Again!

We are so excited to be serving in Mongolia again, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE WEATHER IS ABOVE 6 degrees (like it was the last time we were here!)  It is an amazing and wonderful country full of beautiful and kind people.  Our wheelchair trainings are taking place at the National Rehab. Center in the heart of the capital, Ulaanbaatar.

Grandbaby #7 Arrives on the day after we return from Nepal!

Our 5th granddaughter was born to Clayton and Amanda less than 24 hours after we arrived home from Nepal.  We felt so lucky to be here to welcome our beautiful little Baya Maree Brown.

Dusk by the bay in Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia

Malaysia and Nepal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62387319@N04/

Malaysia and Nepal

The Top of the World

A political rally today has caused the city of Kathmandu (3 million+) to virtually shut down, so it gives me a chance to stay in our hotel room and catch up on our activities of the past couple of weeks.  Nepal is unusual and interesting.  We've had a once in a lifetime experience as we were invited to attend a ceremony at the Presidential Palace where the international artist, Ranan Lurie, handed over 3 paintings to a Nepali sherpa who will take them to the top of Mt. Everest in May as a symbol of world unity and the Nepal Tourism Year.

The man in the center is the Sherpa.

MALAYSIA!

We were in West Malaysia for a day and met this most wonderful woman at Cheshire Homes, Katihjah, who we will work with later in the year to do a training session for clinicians in Kuala Lumpur.  Then we traveled to East Malaysia (on the island of Borneo) and are working with two other Cheshire homes in the north (Kota Kinabalu) and south (Kuching)  along with some Rotary clubs and other NGO's as well as government organizations.  All are excited about serving wheelchair users better and improving the level of service to better meet the needs of the disabled here in Malaysia.  It's a blessing to work with so many good-hearted and dedicated people.

AMAZING MONGOLIA

Mongolia is so cold and desolate but the people are warm and wonderful. We have loved working with the Lasson's (Humanitarian Couple) who have done such a fantastic job of juggling such a variety of humanitarian projects and have taught us so much.

We look forward to returning in a few months to do a wheelchair training with the National Rehab. Center here in Ulaanbataar.

Our Final Day in the Philippines

After three busy weeks of Wheelchair Training in four different cities, we got to spend the morning at the beautiful temple in Manila.  It was a little slice of heaven!  We love the Philippines and ESPECIALLY the wonderful people we've met.

Loving the Philippines

We are doing 4 Wheelchair trainings on four different islands of the Philippines.  We love these beautiful people and are finding much success with the quality of participants that are coming to the training sessions.

BACK FROM GUYANA

We've just returned from a Wheelchair Training project in Georgetown, Guyana, South America.  Guyana happens to be the only country in South America with English as their primary language so we were blessed to be able to conduct the training without the use of interpreters!  We had 18 wonderful local participants who did an excellent job of learning the fitting skills and then demonstrated their knowledge by actually fitting 18 disabled recipients and sending them off to lead a more productive and comfortable life in their new wheelchairs.

We had the privilege of working with some incredible team members:  The Angus' who are the full-time Humanitarian couple in Guyana, the Cullimore's who are a wonderful and experienced Development Couple for the Wheelchair Initiative and Steve Spencer, a Physical Therapist from Eden, Utah.  The class participants came from 5 different health clinics from around Georgetown and were eager learners that we believe will be a great asset in helping disabled Guyanese to get appropriate, well-fitted chairs in the future.